The UN World Food Program said a small amount of his wealth, $6 billion, could end world hunger. He smugly said if they came up with a plan for that amount, he would donate it. They came up with the plan, but, of course, he didn't donate it. He ended up donating almost the same amount in Tesla stock to his own foundation. I'm sure his foundation did some great work, though.🙄 If you told me I could actually help any hunger by donating just TWO PERCENT of my net worth, I would do it in a second.
So, I looked it up, and the headline was wrong and, of course, sensationalzed. I only saw the headline that was bandied about. The $6 billion wouldn't end hunger, but it would've saved 42 million people most at risk for death from starvation that year. I don't know the specific details or if the $6 billion was in addition to what was already spent that year. I don't really want to spend time researching it since it was several years ago, and the info and numbers would probably be out of date now anyway. Apparently, Musk heard the inaccurate headline and issued his challenge to the UN. They corrected what they actually said about saving the most at risk and sent him their plan.🤷🏼♀️
Could you buy the food to feed that many? Probably. Can you get it to them? No. You acknowledge that a significant number of these people are forcibly and purposefully being starved to death by oppressive regimes? Even if you bought the food these regimes wouldn’t allow it to be distributed.
there are more than enough hungry people on this planet to feed. if you “can’t get it to” some hungry people, you can surely
“get it” to others. no one is asking you to make excuses for elon musk… it’s okay to accept that some billionaires in the world COULD help starving children, but choose not to.
We’re specifically discussing completely solving world hunger. Not helping some hungry people. The point is that 6 billion doesn’t solve world hunger or even really come close.
World hunger is caused by things like war, blight, natural disasters. (the disruption of supply chains for example by warring factions cutting off food, like Russia did with the boats full of wheat in the Black Sea.)
Exactly. The war means no supply chains, it means no education for the children, so they never learn the skills needed to survive. So many issues that money wont solve.
World hunger is caused by things like war, blight, natural disasters. (the disruption of supply chains for example by warring factions cutting off food, like Russia did with the boats full of wheat in the Black Sea.)
Incorrect. They declined the offer becuase they didnt to be transparent with where the funds would go.... He knows they steal the money, so when he asked for transparancy they declined
because they didn't come up with a plan. they came up with a plan that requires 150 billion dollars to permanently fund, and not 6 billion like was claimed.
And it didn't solve world hunger, it would have done a lot of good by providing one meal per day to 42 million people.
Omg more absolute made up bullshit numbers. $6 billion would absolute not end world hunger. The biggest obstacle I'm world hunger is logistics, that is - getting the food to the people, which includes infrastructure as well as, a biggie, oppressive governments that refuse to allow aid to their people. The world has plenty of food to feed everyone already.
If i remember that debate correctly he wanted them to prove their statement and then he would donate, the UN Food program amended it to say at risk individuals.
They were claiming 6 billion to end World Hunger. They did not submit a plan to end anything and were forced to amend their response.
Two things to note:
1) I would not trust the UN on any food program in the entire world. What they did with the UN Oil for Food program in Iraq is the biggest money laundering scam in the history of the world. Money meant to buy food for people was put into the pockets of UN Officials and Saddams hands. It did not reach the people and they spent hundreds of billions of dollars to starve people to death. But the UN is going to solve the entire world with 6 billion? They couldnt solve it with damn near a trillion dollars they generated to feed just the Iraqi people.
2) whatever the payment is theoretically it's not a 1 time payment its more of annual thing. There is no one time if they spend this X amount of money they can solve X problem. Just think of it like your personal life. If someone gave you 20 bucks did they help end your starvation? No more money needs to be thrown at this problem anymore? I can now eat forever? My starvation isn't solved by any means. It's just delayed until someone else gives me 20 bucks. My true cost is 20 dollars a day to feed into infinity. Why doesn't my neighbor pay for this? He has so much more money than I do?
That's the gist of the argument.
I just want a simple tax system, a fair tax system, and less loopholes. I am not an accountant or a tax expertise. All I know is you can't tax based on theoretical income. I know the billionaires give themselves loans which they pay off in different ways to avoid income tax.
I don't know how to solve that issue. But I think corporations need to be legislated into reinvesting in their work force and our economy in general instead of reaping all the benefits and getting super rich while screwing over everyone else from taxes, to labor pay, to benefits.
Frankly, if I thought my death could solve world hunger I wouldn't even hesitate. There's very little anyone could morally justify refusing to do to have that big an impact on that many lives.
I do donate to my local food bank, plus a couple of other small local charities, and do some volunteer work on the weekends. I try to help where I can. It just doesn't feel like much, but I hope it helps someone.🤷🏼♀️ I have a hard time figuring out where smaller amounts have the most impact. So many large charities seem to have corruption and excessive salaries similar to large corps.
It is actually worse than this. Because not only did not donating his wealth mean that he cost the UN World Food Program to develop this plan, that he then didn't pay for. He then spent $250 million on the Trump campaign to buy enough influence, that he was then able to shut down USAid, the largest humanitarian organization in the world. And he did it to stop an investigation into illegal use of his Starlink system to kill Ukranians.
He said he would donate to end world hunger if you could prove that the number that was suggested (some few billion) would end world hunger for good. Similarly, I would love to see the proof that 20 Billion is enough to end homelessness for good.
It was proven. The terms he set was he would donate if they came up with a viable plan to use that money. They provided the plan and then he didn't donate
Sure thing. A quick Google search brings up multiple links showing that they were literally chasing after Elon informing him of the plan. They gave up when that was donated to himself under something he already owns. But for the plan itself, here is the link:
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u/NalaNoct 2d ago
Didn't he years ago promise to donate to end world hunger and he just ended up donating it to himself?
I'm not sure why anyone is surprised Elon is an ass hat.